1

Shadow Report

On the Implementation of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of

Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in Mongolia

MONFEMNET

(MONFEMNET National Network)

May 19, 2015 Ulaanbaatar,Mongolia

Brief Summary

Patriarchical traditions and customs, which have been used for hundreds of

years in Mongolian society, have survived until today in political, social, economic and

cultural lives in rather modified forms and trends, becoming contributing factors to the

so-called causes and excuses for discrimination against women.

Because of this reason, member organizations of MONFEMNET National

Network have decided to write the shadow report on the implementation of CEDAW in

Mongolia by the theme of state accountability to change negative traditional values and

public attitudes which create causes for discrimination against women in terms of

government, market, community and family frameworks.

It has been 34 years since the Government of Mongolia ratified the CEDAW in

1981 and 25 years since it adopted its Constitution which declared ensurance of human

rights, equality and non-discrimination and determination of government duties and

responsibilities. Even though the Constitution states that “The citizens of Mongolia shall

enjoy the guaranteed basic human rights and freedoms” and “The State is responsible

to the citizens for the creation of economic, social, legal, and other guarantees ensuring

human rights and freedoms, for the prevention of violations of human rights and

freedoms, and restoration of infringed rights”, this report includes specific issues of

violations of and discrimination against the rights and freedoms of Mongolian women. In

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addition, this report emphasizes the fact that the Government of Mongolia has not taken

specific, adequate measures to implement international human rights conventions and

treates to which it is Party, especially what was stated in Article 5 of this Convention.

1.1. Measures taken to refrain from engaging in any act or practice of

discrimination against women and to ensure that public authorities and

institutions shall act in conformity with this obligation(Article 2(d))

The government has not taken substantial measures to change stereotypical concepts

and attitudes to discriminate against and look down on women and to create power

balanced relations. On the contrary, instead of ending discriminatory acts and practices

against women and elimitating root causes of discrimination, the government itself is

initiating and promotingthem.

1.2. Measures taken to adopt appropriate legislative and other measures,

including sanctions where appropriate, prohibiting all discrimination

against women(Articles 2 and 3)

Even though it has made progress in terms of adopting Law on Promotion of Gender

Equality and Law on Combatting Trafficking in Persons and discussing at the parliament

to amend the Domestic Violence Law during the reporting period, the Government of

Mongolia has made decisions stepping back from previously progressive policies.

1.2.1. Pro-natalist policy on population growth and state policy viewing women

as reproductive tools and their consequences

Due to the state policy that distributes small amount of cash to incentivize birth for

population growth and strengthens the stereotypical attitude that childcare is only

women’s issue, the birth-related social service infrastructure (maternity hospitals,

nurseries andkindergartens)is left behind. This brings unpaid,enormous amount of

labor burden on the shoulders of women. This state policy does not only discriminate

women in the formal employment market because of their reproductive roles and

responsibilities, but also restricts their equal opportunities in combining child rearing

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with income making by working, owning properties and gaining social resources with

equality, putting them in more vulnerable and risky situations.

Conclusion

Phenomena of discriminating against and looking down on women have been

increasing in political, economic, familial and social environments due to the attempts to

protect the country with small population from negative effects of globalization and to

preserve its cultures, as well as ultra-nationalism. However, the government, which has

the duties to eliminate negative cultures, traditions and customs, is supposed to take a

set of systematic, comprehensive measures to eradicate their root causes; instead it is

strengthening ithem by its laws and policies, moving backward from achievements and

progresses it has made in the past years.

Recommendations

- Incorporate the concepts of human rights and gender equality into the curriculum

of educational organizations of all levels and universities where future human

resources are trained;

- Comprehensivelyintegrate population policy with other relevant issues, including

enhancing the quality and accessibility of basic social services such as health

and education, reducing the costs of child rearing and combining child rearing

with opportunities to employment as challenges facing families;

- Develop the infrastructures of pre-school education, health and social services

and increase investment by improving the capacity of maternity hospitals and

quality and accessibility of health services and care for women, midwives,

children and infants;

- Implement a policy creating an enabling environment in terms of working hours

and flexibility so that both parents can be supported to care for their children in

turns, without hindering their employment with wage;

- Create a legal environment in which the government provides social welfare

benefits equivalentto one’s monthly salary for pregnant and new mothersand the

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parents who are on maternal or paternal leave and those care for their children

with disabilities andpays for relevant social and health insurance fees;

- Create a legal environment taking account of domestic yet unpaid labor values

such as domestic work and family business since the marriage between a man

and a women and care for children, people with disabilities and elders, as

contributions to the creation of social wealth and household economy;

- Determine a policy to enhance economic empowerment comprehensively taking

into account of all stages of lives of women by a way of facilitating women’s

employment with wage, guaranteeing their rights to ownership and increasing

their opportunity to gain social resources with equality;

- Create a mechanism to implement the Law on Promotion of Gender Equality

which codified the quota for appointed positions of public service at all levels;

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CONTENTS OF THE REPORT

INTRODUCTION PART Page6

PART I Page7

1.1 Measures taken to refrain from engaging in any act or practice of discrimination

against women and to ensure that public authorities and institutions shall act in

conformity with this obligation (Article 2 (d))

1.2 Measures taken to adopt appropriate legislative and other measures, prohibiting all

discrimination against women(Articles 2 and 3)

1.3 . Measures taken to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and

women (Article 5)

PART II Page15

2.1 . Appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the political and

public life of the country, in particular, ensuring to women, on equal terms with men

(Articles 7 and 8)

PART III Page16

3.1 Implementation of gender equality in the educational sector (Article 10)

3.2 Implementation of gender equality in the employment sector (Article 11)

PART IV Page 19

4.1 Implementation of gender equality in marriage and family relations (Article 16)

ANNEXES Page23

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INTRODUCTION PART

General Introduction about Mongolia

Mongolia is located in Central Asia. It borders with the Russian Federation in the

north and with the People’s Republic of China by the rest of the borderline. Ethnically,

95% of the overall population is Mongolians, 4.9% Kazakhs and 0.1% other ethnic

groups.The literacy rate is 99%.

Transitioning to the market economy saw intensive internal migration from rural

areas into the capital city, leading two thirds of the population to residing in urban areas

and 65% of today’s urban populations is concentrated in the capital city Ulaanbaatar.1

The population of Mongolia reached 3 million in January 2015.As of the end of

2014, the population was2,995,949, 51,46% of whom were women.

According to the 2015 1st quarter workforce study, the nationwide workforce or

economically active population who are above the age of 15 are 1,205,500,632,100 or

52.4% of whom are male and 573,400 or 47.6% are female. Furthermore, participation

level of the workforce is 61.5% on average nationwide,withmale being 68.6% andfemale

55.3%.

As for the economically inactive population nationwide, the overall figure is

753,400,289,300 whom are male and 464,100 or 61.6% of them are female.2As of the

1st quarter of 2015,the national unemployment rate is 88,600 citizens, 53,600 or 60.5%

of whom are male and 35,000 or 39.5% are female.

As of 2013,the total number of single parents is 107,187, 81,741 of whom are

women and 25,446 are men. Among these women, those who are below the age of 18

with many children are 39,904.

Mongolia is a people’s republic state with parliamentary government, which

declared in its Consitution thatits “supreme objective is to build a humane, civil and

democratic society in the country”.

1 Draft of the integrated state policy on population development (the version submitted to the parliament)

2 NSO, 1

st Quarter Data, 2015.

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Mongolia is of nomadic culture and tradition and the Wikipedia mentions that

“Mongolian culture can generally be defined as the cultural heritage of nomads who

have constantly moved in its changeable natural climate and urban cultural civilization

based on this nomadic lifestyle”.3

It has been 25 years since Mongolia rejected the socialist system, transitioned to

the democratic system and developed a market economy in1990.

In the name of ensuring the national independence and economic development,

the Government of Mongolia views women as a tool for the population growth policy

and an object to serve the national interest, violating their sexual and reproductive

rights. This biased policy of the government brings about risks to further strengthen

stereotypical, negative societal attitudes in relations to self-value and position of girls

and women, reproductive roles and responsibilities and labor division.

PART I

1.1. Measures taken to refrain from engaging in any act or practice of

discrimination against women and to ensure that public authorities and

institutions shall act in conformity with this obligation (Article 2(d))

On December 28, 2011, the President of Mongolia issued No.239 decree on

“Lighting the State Hearth of Mongolia”. Following this decree, the ceremony of “Lighting

the State Hearth” was organized in the State Palace on December 29 of that year. This

ritual spent about 360 million tugrugs from the state reserve funds and invited only men

from the Parliament, President’s Office and government officials. However, not a single

woman from the government or media was invited, not even a woman parliamentarian.

Therefore, citizen J. Zanaa filed a complaint to the Constitutional Court, claiming

that “when the government and certain public officials(parliament members)organized

an event with the tax payment of its citizens, they discriminated the citizens based on

gender and religion”. On March 5, 2012, the Court issued Resolution No. 24 in response

denying to initiate a dispute based on the rationale that “when lighting the state hearth, it

used the finest sample of earth for the hearth fire and foundation of the ger (traditional

3https://mn.wikipedia.org/wiki/Монголын_соёл

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Mongolian house) from the mountain where women are not allowed to climb, hence the

ceremony did not violate the Constitution and followed the Mongolian tradition”.

Since the decree to worship stately sacred mountains and hills by the President

of Mongolia was issued in 2004,the government has been allocating the state budget for

these rituals. Going beyond this , some local authorities and citizens started to forbid

women to climb the so-called stately sacred mountains and hills.

The above-mentioned example shows how the government initiates and even

promotes an act or practice of discrimination against women, instead of trying to endit or

eliminating the root causes of such discrimination.

1.1 Measures taken to adopt appropriate legislative and other measures,

prohibiting all discrimination against women (Articles 2 and 3)

The 1992 Constitution states that “Men and women enjoy equal rights in political,

economic, social, and cultural fields as well as in marriage”, “No person may be

discriminated on the basis of ethnic origin, language, race, age, sex, social origin or

status, property, occupation or post, religion, opinion, or education” (14.2), “Marriage is

based on the equality and mutual consent of the spouses who have reached the age

determined by law. The State protects the interests of the family, motherhood, and the

child”, (16.11) and“All persons lawfully residing within Mongolia are equal before the law

and the courts” (14.1). In addition, “Law on Promotion of Gender Equality” (2011),

Family Law(1999), Labor Law(1999), Law on Combatting Domestic Violence (2004)

andLaw on Combatting Trafficking in Persons(2012)stipulate and ensure equal rights for

both men and women.

Article 19 of the Constitution states that “The State is responsible to the citizens for

the creation of economic, social, legal, and other guarantees ensuring human rights and

freedoms, for the prevention of violations of human rights and freedoms, and restoration

of infringed rights”.

Even though there are no provisions to directly discriminate against and look

down on women’s political, economic, social and cultural rights in legal documents such

as Mongolian laws and state policies, women cannot genuinely enjoy the rights

guaranteed in the Constitution and other laws due to that facts that the system and

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mechanism to ensure genuine equality are still poor and insufficient; the government

support is not enough; and the government has not taken proper measures to

systematically and routinely train its human resources. Because of this, opportunities for

women’s equal participation in political, social and family lives are limited in comparison

with those for men, making women subject to direct and indirect discrimination and all

types of violence and pressure in government, market, public and family spheres.

Although it has made progress in terms of adopting Law on Promotion of Gender

Equality and Law on Combatting Trafficking in Persons and discussing at the parliament

to amend the Domestic Violence Law during the reporting period, the Government of

Mongolia has made decisions stepping back from previously progressive policies. For

instance:

a) Despite the fact that the Law on Promotion of Gender Equality was adopted

by the Parliament in 2011 and the strategy to implement this law was

approved by the Government in 2014, there has been no political will to do

so. The new government formed in November 2014 abolished the Secretariat

of the National Committee on Gender Equality (NCGE) which carried out

cross-sectoral coordinationand brought it under the Ministry of Population

Development and Social Protection (MoPDSP), claiming that it was done due

to the economic crisis, government’s transitioning to the economizing mode

and reducing the duplication of work. Shifting this mandate under one

particular ministry has made it impossible to implement cross-sectoral

coordination and gender mainstreaming for the past 8 months. Towards this

end, NGOs sent a petition to the Prime Minister, but to no avail. Although the

Government explains that the Prime Minister is still the Chair of the NCGE

enabling its cross-sectoral coordination, the NCGE has not convened a single

meeting since 2015.

b) In July 2013, the Parliament adopted the Law on Victim and Witness

Protection and Law on Takhar (Marshal) Service and established the Marshal

Authority. However, attempts have been made to abolish this authority due to

the same reasons mentioned above. The newly formed government issued

the 2014 Government Resolution No. 147 on “Measures to transition to the

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budget downsizing mode”, laying off 464 positions in ministries and agencies

and estimating to save 13 billion tugrugs. On December 5, 2014, Prime

Minister Ch. Saikhanbileg submitted the resolution to abolish the almost-one-

year-old Marshal Authorityto Mr. Z. Enkhbold, Speaker of the Parliament.

Even though the proposal was rejected by some parliamentarians for further

perusal, draft Law on Criminal Adjudication and other relevant laws include

suggestions to abolish the authority. Since the inception of the Marshal

Authority, actions to protect victims of domestic violence, sexual violence and

human trafficking have been made swiftly and effectively, in close

collaboration with the non-governmental organizations working in the field.

About 200 NGOs were united and held a press conference on May 12, 2015

and submitted a petition to the President of Mongolia, Prime Minister and

Speaker of Parliament, butno response has been given so far.

Recommendation 23 of the Committee on the CEDAW states that “The Committee

also recommends that the State party introduce human rights education, including

gender education on the basis of the Convention, into school curricula, and to

encourage the media to promote cultural changes with regard to the roles and

responsibilities attributed to women and men, required by Article 5 of the

Convention”. However, consistent, systematic and coherent measures have not been

taken in order to implement this recommendation, except for the monthly program

called “Legal Guide” initiated by a journalist of the Mongolia National Broadcaster.

Since the 5th, 6th and 7th reports on the implementation of the Convention until

today, the government has not made assessments from the human rights and gender

equality perspectives on legal documents such as national legislations, resolutions

and decrees. In regards to this point, National Statistics Office (NSO) concluded in its

2012 report that “The criteria for the Millenium Development Goals did not take

account of these three indicators: i) Experts’ assessment on Mongolian national

legislations in line withinternational human rights treaties and conventions, ii)

Attendance rate of citizens participating in the process of candidate nomination for

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the governors of bags and khoroos (administrative units below province or aimag),

and iii) Percentage of unregistered residents among urban populations”.4

1.2 Measures taken to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men

and women (Article 5)

The Convention stipulates that “States Parties shall take all appropriate measuresto

modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to

achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices which

are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on

stereotyped roles for men and women.”5

The Constitution of Mongolia states that the international treaties to which

Mongolia is a Party become effective as domestic legislation upon the entry into force

of the laws on their ratification or accession.6

The national legislations of our country have provisions on equality of men and

women and non-discrimination, but its enforcement in real life is insufficient.

Substantial and brave changes have not been made by the Government of Mongolia

to eliminate root causes of discrimination against women, taking account of

patriarchical traditions existing in political, edonomic, social and family relations and

derogatory attitudes, acts and practices against women in the name of culture, in its

entirety. On the contrary, the government has been implementing policies, programs

and events that bring about new forms of discrimination and challenges, turning its

back on past achievements and successes.

Pro-natalist policy on population growth and state policy viewing women as

reproductive tools and their consequences

In the name of ensuring the national independence and economic development,

the Government of Mongolia views women as a tool for the population growth policy

and an object to serve the national interest, violating their sexual and reproductive

4http://www.1212.mn/contents/stats/contents_stat_fld_tree_html.jsp

5Article 5 (a) of the CEDAW

6Article 10.3 of the Constitution of Mongolia

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rights. The integrated state policy on population development focusessolely on

increasing the birth rate, as if only the birth has impact on the population growth and as

if this population growth would have positive effects on economic growth, social

development and life quality automatically. This biased policy of the government brings

about risks to further strengthen stereotypical, negative societal attitudes in relations to

self-value and position of girls and women, reproductive roles and responsibilities and

labor division.

Measures to ensure women’s rights are implemented only in terms of maternal

health protection, which tends to increase discrimination and marginalization caused

by reproductive roles and responsibilities.

When political parties run for the parliamentarian election held every 4 years,

they have promised to distribute cash for families and children with the purpose of

incentivizing birth, putting emphasis on population growth policy to attract more votes.

The winning parties reflect this promise and policy in their agenda when forming their

government. Classic examples are shown in the following facts:

“The fact that the birth rate went down to 17.4 in 2005, the lowest in history,

whereas it became 27.5as of 2013, the highest since 1990, proves that the

appropriate policies and actions by the government support birth and population

growth. The high number of age groups of 0-4; 20-24 and 25-29 as well as of women

who are reproductively active (ages 20-29) among the general populations indicates

the probability of the birth rate increasing in recent years. Therefore, it is necessary to

create an enabling enviroment to support birth as ther are many people at the age of

reproduction.”7

This state policy does not only discriminate women in the formal employment

market because of their reproductive roles and responsibilities, but also restricts their

equal opportunities in combining child rearing with income making by working,

owning properties and gaining social resources with equality, putting them in more

vulnerable and risky situations.

The policy to incentivize birth rate for the sake of population growth by distributing

small amount of cash creates an environment in which women are more vulnerable to

Draft of the integrated state policy on population development (the version submitted to the parliament)

13

poverty. This blocks the long-term investment for them to obtain professional skills, to

get employed with wages, to make incomes, to own properties and to get promoted.

The state policy strengthens the stereotypical attitude that childcare is only

women’s issue, so the birth-related social service infrastructure is left behind. This

brings unpaid,enormous amount of labor burden on the shoulders of women.

Capacity of Maternity Hospitals: In Mongolia, on average 70,000 women give birth

annualy. 45.8% of overall birth rate or about 30,000 of them are in the capital city

Ulaanbaatar. As for the capacity of maternity hospitals, it increased by 20 percent in the

past 3 years. Even though the population of the capacity exceeds 1.2 million, there are

only 3 maternal hospitals with 45-50 beds each.In 2013, the 1st Maternity Hospital built

an extension with 150 beds. Thefacilities are consistently overcrowded, with long wait

times for antenatal care and delivery services. Due to limited number of obstetricians

and the fact that pregnant women have to queue at hospitals for medical check-up from

5 am, the quality of antenatal care coverage is poor.8Lack of beds leads women to wait

for their delivery in the corridors. As it is unacceptable to keep new mothers in the

corridors of hospitals for a long time, we have to discharge them after one day of stay.

Although it was planned to build an extension with 105 beds for the 3rd maternity

hospital, it has not been done due to the unresolved budget issues. Furthermore, the

foundation was laid to construct the 4th maternity hospital with 300 beds, but it was not

realized as the project was implemented incorrectly and the budget was not resolved.

Accessibility of pre-school educational organizations: There is no facility or

organization that cares for children below the age of two at the moment. Only 40% of

the children who are supposed to be going to kindergarten is enrolling. In other words,

60 out of 100 children cannot go to kindergarten due to lack of facility availability.

As of 2013, there are 247,104 children of 2-5 agesnationwide, 61,585 of whom or

one fourth and 74,900 childrenof the same age group in the capital city,21,400 of whom

or one third are unable to enjoy pre-school educational services.9

8Country Profile on Universal Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health: Mongolia, 2015, page 11

9From theconcept note of the draft law on babysitting services submitted to the parliament

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Discrimination in Employment and Labor Relations:

There is no regulation to support equal share of parents’ roles and responsibilities

for childcare. Implementing an one-sided policy viewing women as only “mothers”, not

considering women’s rights and all spheres of their lives has restricted their rights in

labor relations, employersdiscriminating and refusing to employ young women.

Women’s opportunities to paid employment are limited due to various factors such

as pressures related to reproductive roles and responsibilities, domestic workload and

lack of time and disabling labour environment. Women’s employment market is not

expanding and women are rather squeezed out of guaranteed, paid jobs with social

insurance coverage, eventually shifting to informal, domestic work. Therefore, women’s

investment to education is becoming worthless. In 2000, there were 64,500 women

registed as housewives, whereas it became 93,600 in 2010.10

In these circumstances, instead of analyzing and improving this policy, the

government has submitted the draft “Monglian Integrated State Policy on

PopulationDevelopment” to the Parliament, further strengthening the policy. In addition,

the draft law “Many of Us” has been developed and is about to be submitted to the

Parliament.

The draft “Mongolian Integrated State Policy on Population Development” is planned

to be implemented until 2025. One of the priority areas of this policy is defined as

“Create an enabling environment for healthy, quality delivery based on the fact that

there is a high number of reproductive age populations and stabilize population growth

by protecting the health of general populations”. The indicator for outcomes of this area

is defined as only the average annual population growth and integrated measures to

develop birth-related social service infrаstructure have not been reflected.

Another priority area is to create an environment in which working-age populations

have opportunities to employment and incomes and the relevant goals and outcome

indicators do not even mention the combination of child rearing with paid employment.

The draft law “Many of Us” is a document which is not based on human rights and

women’s sexual and reproductive rights, viewing women as reproductive tools only. For

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Results of the National Census on Population and Accommodation, National Standardization Committee, 2010

15

instance, the objective of this law is to regulate benefits and allowances for pregrant

women and women who are raising children up to the age of 2as well as those who

gave birth to and are bringing up twins and more than 3 children. It is also specifically

mentioned that the mothers who are raising more than 3 children deserve monthly

allowances and mothers who have more than 4 children (2-18 of ages)will be exempt

from individual income taxation. This leads not only women but also young couples to

vulnerable, risky circumstances such as workplace discrimination against young women

andtheir being driven out of labor market due to reproductive roles and responsibilities,

having to sustain livelihood only by salary and income of one member of the family and

being disqualified for housing loan failing the bank requirements as there is no income

except for allowances for childcare.

PART II

2.1 . Appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the

political and public life of the country, in particular, ensuring to women, on

equal terms with men (Articles 7 and 8)

In line with the international human rights treaties and conventions, the Constitution

of Mongolia states that“Men and women enjoy equal rights in political, economic, social,

and cultural fields as well as in marriage”, “The citizens have the right to elect and to be

elected to State bodies.The right to elect is enjoyed from the age of eighteen years”.

Even though these provisions meet the principles of equality, non-discrimination and

government commitments, Article 10 of the Mongolian Law on Promotion of Gender

Equalitystates that “The State shall ensure conditions and opportunities for actual

implementation of equal rights of men and women to be hired and be employed in civil

service through the following policy”, “10.1.1.Representation of any one sex among

politically appointed civil servants shall not be less than 15 percent on national, aimag

and the capital city levels, 20 percent on district, 25 percent on soum and 30 percent on

khoroo levels”;“10.1.2.Representation of any one sex in decision-making positions in

public administration shall not be less than 15 percent among state secretaries and

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heads of agencies, 20 percent among managers in other central agencies, 30 percent

among heads of department in ministries and agencies, 40 percent among heads of

secretariats, departments and divisions on aimag, city, soum, duureg and khoroo levels”

and“10.1.3.Representation of any one sex among public servants in special public

agencies shall not be less than 40 percent, except in the army, border and domestic

military, police, intelligence, court decision enforcement, anti-corruption and emergency

agencies”, setting the minimum quota for women’s representation. Although these

provisions may seem to have set the minimum quota to maintain the balance of gender

equality, this has been used as the maximum quota of women’s representation in

political and social frameworks for many years for the country where patriarchical

systems, traditions and acts prevail. Measures to enforce the law have not been made.

Political parties are not implementing temporary and special measures in a proper

method or form with consistence and sustainability to guarantee actual equal rights for

women to be elected as a result of the parliamentarian and local government elections.

The government and public are still unaware of the basic legal concepts and importance

of these temporary and special measures. The fact that women’s energy, knowledge

and skills are utilized to “assist and support” male candidates during their election

campaigns, limiting women’s political participation, shows that there are still those

ideologies and attitudes of “preferring men to be working on legislating and policy-

making, especially working for the higher-level organizations”.

Even though the Government of Mongolia appoints both men and women at the

same level and condition for activities organized by international organizations as well

as for ambassadors’ and other positions abroad, the appointment of women is usually in

countries where they do not have permanent and active relations with Mongolia in terms

of political, economic and social issues.

PART III

3.1 . Implementation of gender equality in the educational sector (Article 10)

In Mongolia, 939,500 children and youth enrolling in all levels of schoolsis an

increase by 2.8% in comparison with that of the 2014-2015 academic year and on

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averageabout 60% of them are female students. In this academic year, it is estimated

that there is a total number of 101 universities and colleges nationwide, 16, 80 and 5 of

which are state-owned, private and foreign, respectively.

Given that the majority of students of Mongolian schools and educational

organizations are female, the implementation of women’s rights to education may seem

quite promising, but there is no guarantee of ensuring workplaces for these girls and

women upon graduating with university diploma. For example, a women named “J” said

that she is sustaining her life as a taxi driver using her own car even though she

graduated from Law School and National Academy of Governance and applied for

many jobs but to no avail.

There are thousands of examples as the one mentioned above where women pay

enormous amount of tuition fees for their secondary and high education, yet they hardly

enjoy the fruits of their personal investment.

Furthermore, issues of workplace sexual harassment often occurring in multiple

levels of educational organizations have been prevalent, rudely violating the rights to

education and development. However, sexual harassment issues in schools are often

suppressed and hidden as it has negative impacts on the reputation of female students

enrolling in secondary schools and universities. Another issue of concern is anecdotes

proving that there are many cases of female university students turning to sex work due

to life conditions and an ever-increasing life cost which is far higher than the

consumption rate. Furthermore, a rape case of a primary schoolgirl at school

environment was reported 3 years ago. This indicates that proper, safe environment has

not been ensured for girls and young women to study and to enjoy their freedom.

In general, youth knowledge and skills upon their graduation do not meet the needs

and requirements of real life due to multiple reasons such as weak quality of the

Mongolian education system, lack of teachers in kindergartens and schools, constant

changes in the past in curricula of schools of all levels making students “guinea pigs”,

currently experimenting the content of the Cambridge system of education at a very few

schools and using various textbooks for one type of science class, to name a few.

Article 6.3 of the Law on Mongolian Language, adopted in February 2015, states

that “Foreign languages can be taught starting from the 5th grade at secondary schools

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except for other secondary schools with the special permission to teach foreign

languages and those which carry out training in foreign languages according to the

permission issued by the government”. This law against equality and discrimination

destroys the standards of public education on the one hand and gives rise to elitist

policies on the other hand.

As the gap between the rich and the poor is increasing in Mongolia, even though

women, especially single mothers belong to the economically active population groups,

they are still unemployed or work inlow-paidsectors, sacrificed by this elitist policy.

3.2 . Implementation of gender equality in the employment sector (Article 11)

Employment status of the population group above the age of 15,as of the first four

months of 2015:11

Indicators 2015 1/4

Total number Male Female

Population above the age of

15(thousand)

1.958.899 921.376 1.037.507

Economically active

population(thousand)

1.205.496 632.064 573.432

Economically inactive

population(thousand)

753.387 289.312 464.075

Workforce participation

level(%)

61.5 68.6 55.3

Employment rate(%) 57 62.8 51.9

Unemployment rate(%) 7.4 8.5 6.1

According to the above table, even though the percentage of women among the

population above the age of 15 is 52.9%, the percentages of women among those

economically active and inactive populations are 47.5 and 61.5, respectively and their

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workforce participation level, employment rate and unemployment rate are lower by

13.3, 10.9and 2.4 points, respectively.This shows that the government does not pay

adequate attention to issues in terms of limited opportunities for women to enjoy their

rights to employment and increased income, providing them with jobs and increasing

their economic capabilities. As of the end of April 2015, the number of job seeking

citizens registered at the employment agency is 48,500, 25,400 of whom are women.

The number of registered, unemployed citizens is 17,900 or 53% of them is women, an

increase by 0.3 points compared with the previous year.12

The above statistics show that there still are economic factors which have

negative impacts on women’s economic, social, political and cultural rights and indicate

direct and indirect discrimination by violating their rights guaranteed and stipulated in

the Convention and the Constitution of Mongolia, in the name of “creating a democratic,

free market economy”, instead of realistically implementing the policies, laws and

actions ensuring women’s rights to employment.

PART IV

4.1 . Implementation of gender equality in marriage and family relations (Article

16)

In the Principle part titled “Ensuring family-oriented human development” of the

draft Mongolian integrated state policy on population development, it states that

children, young people, elders and people with disabilities will be developed and

protected within the framework of family, “acknowledging that family is a social,

population and reproductive basic unit” and supporting human development by a

way of supporting family development.

Article 3 of the Family Law defines that"’family’ is family members who are related

by property and personal rights and obligations created as a result of consummation of

marriage”. Concluding from this definition, single mothers are most likely to belong to

the marginalized groups, irrelevant to the state policy on population development.

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Besides that, priority areas of supporting population and family development state

that “Create an enabling environment for healthy, quality delivery based on the fact that

there is a high number of reproductive age populations and stabilize population growth

by protecting the health of general populations”, “Regularly increase creative, capable

human resources by developing and ensuring educational and cultural needs of children

and youth”, “create an enabling environment for working-age populations to be

employed and have income in order to effectively use large resources of working-age

populations during the demographic window”, “Prepare populations for healthy ageing

focusing on fast-paced ageing issues facing the country and createaccumulated fund

necessary for future pension, social benefits and services” and “Create a healthy, safe

living environment for populations and improve their life quality”.

Nevertheless, current social and economic policies, especially mining exploration

agreements which most likely will resuscitate our economy are developed,

predominantly supporting the interests of foreign and domestic investors and making

the redistribution of wealth unequal and unfair. This will not contribute to population and

family development and will not be beneficial for the poor and middle class citizens.

The economic situation of Mongolia being more dismal than how the authorities

portray it leads to ever-deteriorating lives of women, especially single mothers and

mothers with many children, who are the majority portion of economically active

populations, yet majority among the unemployed populations at the same time.

Conclusion

Even though it has been 34 years since the Government of Mongolia signed the

UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in

1981, women’s political, social, economic and cultural rights have not been actually

implemented due to lack of policial will to implement the recommendation made by the

Committee, formalistic reporting and the fact that the convention has not been

implemented based on basic principles to guarantee and ensure women’s rights.

The government has not paid sufficient attention to the obligations stipulated in

the first part of the convention and has not taken structural and organizational measures

of implementing the convention in a proper form and a consistent manner.

Phenomena of discriminating against and looking down on women have been

increasing in political, economic, familial and social environments due to the attempts to

protect the country with small population from negative effects of globalization and to

preserve its cultures, as well as ultra-nationalism. However, the government, which has

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the duties to eliminate negative cultures, traditions and customs, is supposed to take a

set of systematic, comprehensive measures to eradicate their root causes; instead it is

strengthening ithem by its laws and policies, moving backward from achievements and

progresses it has made in the past years.

The 1992 Constitution states that “Men and women enjoy equal rights in political,

economic, social, and cultural fields as well as in marriage”, “No person may be

discriminated on the basis of ethnic origin, language, race, age, sex, social origin or

status, property, occupation or post, religion, opinion, or education” (14.2), “Marriage is

based on the equality and mutual consent of the spouses who have reached the age

determined by law. The State protects the interests of the family, motherhood, and the

child”(16.11), “Everyone is a person before the law”, “All persons lawfully residing within

Mongolia are equal before the law and the courts” (14.1), “Laws, decrees, and other

decisions of state bodies and activities of all other organizations and citizens must be in

full conformity with the Constitution”(70.1), “Mongolia fulfills in good faith its obligations

under international treaties to which it is a Party”(10.2), “The international treaties to

which Mongolia is a Party become effective as domestic legislation upon the entry into

force of the laws on their ratification or accession”(10.3). However, attention has not

been given sufficiently in order to develop specific laws, policies and programs to

actually enforce the Constitution in all sectors of society and to provide financial

resources for relaiable systems and mechanisms.

Mongolian women living in today’s democratic and free market society are still

subject to every type of discrimination because of discrepancies in terms of rich, poor,

disability, health and educational differences, professional skills, social status,

differences between urban and rural areas, as well as power relations.

The government has not taken actual measures in order to increase the

knowledge and understanding of the government and general public on the Convention

and to improve the roles and responsibilities of legislative, executive and judicial

organizations, whereas various training, workshops, 3 different studies and shadow

reports have been organized, conducted and writted by women’s NGOs who joined the

national network to monitor the CEDAW implementation, established in 1996.

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On the other hand, UN agencies including UNDP have not financially supported

the monitoring activities and shadow report writing on the implementation of Universal

Periodic Review and other UN human rights and women’s rights conventions. This is

not in line with the UN goals to support meaningful participation of citizens to develop a

democratic, humane society as well as the capacity of passionate individuals, NGOs

and groups diligently and persistently working to improve the actual implementation of

human rights, women’s rights and gender equality.

Therefore, we as representatives of national women’s NGOs suggest the

Committee to allocate certain budget for writing, developing and translating of the

shadow reports on the implementation of international human rights treaties and

conventions, in particular CEDAW, in the future.

Recommendations

- Incorporate the concepts of human rights and gender equality into the curriculum

of educational organizations of all levels and universities where future human

resources are trained;

- Comprehensivelyintegrate population policy with other relevant issues, including

enhancing the quality and accessibility of basic social services such as health

and education, reducing the costs of child rearing and combining child rearing

with opportunities to employment as challenges facing families;

- Develop the infrastructures of pre-school education, health and social services

and increase investment by improving the capacity of maternity hospitals and

quality and accessibility of health services and care for women, midwives,

children and infants;

- Implement a policy creating an enabling environment in terms of working hours

and flexibility so that both parents can be supported to care for their children in

turns, without hindering their employment with wage;

- Create a legal environment in which the government provides social welfare

benefits equivalentto one’s monthly salary for pregnant and new mothersand the

parents who are on maternal or paternal leave and those care for their children

with disabilities andpays for relevantsocial and health insurance fees;

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- Create a legal environment taking account of domestic yet unpaid labor values

such as domestic work and family business since the marriage between a man

and a women and care for children, people with disabilities and elders, as

contributions to the creation of social wealth and household economy;

- Determine a policy to enhance economic empowerment comprehensively taking

into account of all stages of lives of women by a way of facilitating women’s

employment with wage, guaranteeing their rights to ownership and increasing

their opportunity to gain social resources with equality;

- Create a mechanism to implement the Law on Promotion of Gender Equality

which codified the quota for appointed positions of public service at all levels;

ANNEXES

1. Country Profile on Universal Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health:

Mongolia, 2015

2. Country Profile on Universal Access to Sexual and Reproductive Rights:

Mongolia, 2015